Food Is Love Made Visible
Every week I sit down and write this blog. I love it. Any opportunity I have to talk to people about food is a good time in my book. This week? I don’t have the words…

Posting ideas and recipes on what to make for dinner this week seemed trivial and, frankly, tone-deaf. I thought about it a lot. The more I thought about it the more I kept coming back to the power that good food can have. Good food can comfort. Good food can heal. And, I believe, good food can bring a community together.

One of my favorite cookbooks—and restaurants for that matter—is Brown Sugar Kitchen by Tanya Holland. Why? Because it’s the kind of food I like to eat. Did I grow up eating it? No. But good food is good food no matter who or where it comes from. Tanya’s Creole Spice Mix lives in a mason jar by the side of my stove. It stays out on my counter because I use it on so many things from shrimp to chicken to pork that it doesn’t make sense to put it away. (Though I admit, sometimes I go with straight thyme instead of the Herbs De Provence).

The Brown Sugar Kitchen is one of many black-owned restaurants that could use our support right now. The fact that it is a woman-owned business only sweetens the pot. If you would like to support Tanya and the Brown Sugar Kitchen, they are serving up food-to-go that you can order from their website. You can also find a link on their website to donate a meal if you are so inclined.

For those who want to try to recreate their BSK favorites, you can purchase their cookbook here.

Brown Sugar Kitchen is just one of many of the Bay Area’s African American-owned restaurants and businesses that could use your help and support. For a full list check out this spreadsheet.